Greenfield School Committee Meeting March 13, 2019

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003to do it again yeah I have to do it again it's okay yes it's okay we're good we have a quorum we have a quorum thank you secretary extrom all right let's jump right into business everybody um just for the record our secretary is not here today so if everyone can please be sure to speak into the mic and speak clearly cuz she'll be watching the video footage um I forgot to mention also for the record that we are being recorded and broadcast live um from gctv thank you very much gctv for your service to our community may yeah um just relative to that I did hear from several members of the public that are having trouble hearing some members so please do be sure to speak into your microphone in fact it might be

004wise just to leave your mic on throughout the evening so that you don't inadvertently for forget to push it when it's your turn but please do speak into the mic thank you so at this time let's take a look at our minutes uh we have three sets of minutes 213 225 and 37 um have committee members had a chance to review okay um can I have a motion to approve minutes from the Wednesday February 13th 2019 meeting so moved moved by member Hollands is there a second second second by member Karen any deliberation okay yes superintendent I would like to know note for all the minutes up for approval tonight that student names need to be initials and not student uh first name last name for the record we had discussed that before so I

005will pass that note on to our recording secretary but want to make note of it tonight that I I believe you can still approve minutes and that's just a typographical change thank you I appreciate that I didn't catch it okay all those in favor hi hi all right um and is there a motion to approve approve February 25th 2019 minutes so moved moved by member Hollands is there a second second second by member Karen any discussion okay seeing none all those in favor I beautiful motion passes oh you exstension from uh mayor Martin thank you and um can we have a motion to approve the March 7th 2019 draft minutes so moved moveed by member Karen second second by member extrom any deliberation okay all those in favor I um abstain exstension from mayor Martin

006is there any no or additional exstension member Holland are you and I yes thank you um motion passes okay thank you everyone for that and we will move into public comment can I have just like a show of hands as to who's here to comment from the public okay I see one person okay um when you come to the table if you actually want to just come up if you're the only person you can come on up um I do want to review our public comment policy but when you come to the table if you could just make sure that your microphone is on you press the button on it and it'll uh the light will illuminate in green um as well you'll want to State clearly your name and address for the record and

007I do want to review our public participation at school committee meetings policy there are a couple of rules here and I'm looking for committee support related to them so the main things that I want to I'll just go ahead and read it um all regular and special meetings of the school committee shall be open to the public executive sessions will be held only as prescribed by the statutes of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts the school committee desires citizens of the district to attend its meetings so that they may become better acquainted with the operations and the programs of our local public schools in addition the committee would like to like the opportunity to hear the wishes and ideas of the public in order that all citizens who wish to be heard before the committee have a

008chance and to ensure the ability of the committee to conduct the district's business in an orderly manner the following rules and procedures are adopted one at the start of each regular regularly scheduled school committee meeting individuals or group Representatives will be invited to address the committee the chairperson shall determine the length of the public participation segment two speakers will be allowed 3 minutes to present their material the presiding chairperson May permit extension of this time limit um secretary exam if you wouldn't mind being our timekeeper today for three minutes are you able to do that thank you um as well number three topics for discussion must be limited to those items that are listed on the school committee meeting agenda for that evening if anyone needs a copy of the agenda there is a copy

009right here um improper conduct and remarks will not be loud defamatory or abusive remarks are always out of order if a speaker persists in improper conduct or remarks the chairperson May terminate the individual's privilege or of address all remarks will be addressed through the chairperson of the meeting speakers may offer such objective criticisms of the school operations and programs as concern them but in public session the committee will not hear personal complaints of school Personnel nor against any member of the school Community under most circumstance es administrative channels are the proper means for disposition of legitimate complaints involving staff members um written comments longer than 3 minutes may be presented to the committee before or after the meeting of the Committee Member members review and consideration at an appropriate time so um I think it's

010important for us to remind ourselves of the rules from time to time and that's what we have today so without further Ado if you please be mindful of the rules yes mayor Martin thank you madam chair um in a recent ruling uh for the NAC school committee it was ruled unconstitutional to prohibit conversations of U of adverse or negative comments from uring public comment the um the massachusett association of school committees provides policies for all the districts uh natic was one andover's another and Greenfield's another I think we should take caution with uh limiting comment on public comment to um to just positive comments and to prohibit an open and public constitutional right to speak thank you mayor Martin um I just want to reiterate it doesn't necessarily say that you can't be negative at

011the public comment there's just some guidelines here um okay thank you everyone for your patience thank you very much for your patience sure um if you want to go right ahead and if you could just again say your name and address for the record my name is Lonnie zdanowitz I live at 25 Philips Street here in town um I just wanted to address the article in March 5th of the Greenfield Recorder that talked about the civility or lack of Civility of the Greenfield Middle School and the MSA so unfortunately if I'm following the rules that I just presented um we are not deliberating on the GMS MSA building or School culture tonight okay um so unfortunately okay you know I feel the need to to okay I just wanted to just mention to the fact

012of I disagreed with that that article because there's never been and I have lived in this town um most of my life and having four children an 11-year-old who has special needs and is done very well on the mcast in the higher aspect though special needs um I disagreed with that statement and the civility is always been there and that's what I wanted to let the board know that that article has been painted the middle school and M and the M MSA in a very bad light and that this school committee needed to know and be aware of as a special needs parent that that is not the case well and from the um secretaries on up has always been greeted and treated um with my child who has um social skill deficits on up

013um been treated very well with him on up you know I appreciate hearing your comments I you know again it's not on the agenda and I appreciate you coming I appreciate hearing that [Music] um I want the committee to know and the public to know that this is something that's like incredibly difficult for me um and in the past we've had you know varying degrees of adherence to the policy in the past we also limited public comment to only two minutes and actually in the policy it says that members of the public have three minutes and I've worked really hard to um uphold this policy and also you know find the balance between allowing members of the public to come and speak to us um is there anyone else from the public that would like

014to come and speak at this time can speak you know I allowed her about 2 minutes come on up you can have two minutes and then this is I'm I I feel really I just want to say that I feel really frustrated about this Madam chair yes mayor Martin um Madam chair i' just like to say that I support your decision to allow people to speak on any subject thank you I'd like to enter into the record and email that was sent to this committee by the mayor regarding this agenda item my name is Susan Vos excuse me Madam chair may I respond to the superintendent who addressed me I believe that she just requested to add an email into the record the emails are already into the record all the all our emails are

015public record so um we're not off to a good start today ahead I will be brief my name is Susan Voss I live at one could you come a little closer and be sure to yeah we just it's mainly for the record for our sor can hear it okay my name is Susan Voss I live at 158 log Plane Road in Greenfield my husband wrote the letter that they're referring to in terms of the civility every child has a different experience in a school our experience has not been fabulous my son has been hit we've talked to the principal um we are not going to be in the Greenfield school system for next year my son has been accepted at the charter school and we're very pleased by that um superintendent Harper has been very

016good about talking to us and we appreciate that um during our time my son's time at GMS he was physically attacked by students in at least six cases and he has had to have medical attention I have had the nurse call several times um we don't know the number of incidents because it's everyday life now for Patrick he doesn't didn't even think of it um he toured the Four River School with my husband and he was asked what part he liked best and his comment was there's no yelling and that speaks volumes for what he is experiencing it is very different than what other people are experiencing as well and I am not saying his experience is alone but this is the part we have seen um we were told it wasn't bullying because it

017was only one incident and then there was a second incident and then we were told that he don't want to be friends with this kid so basically it appeared that we were being told was his fault um we would like him to have a great school experience and he has four corners was amazing the teachers that we have had at the middle school have been fabulous we have no complaints we would like to see something happen for the kids that are going to be staying at GMS and we would like to start a dialogue about this minutes thank you if you could wrap up we would just like to start a dialogue our purpose is not to get anyone in trouble or to say that it's anyone's fault we need to start a dialogue about

018what's going on and how it can be fixed thank you thank you is there anyone else from the public that would like to comment okay seeing [Music] none we'll move on to reports St Representatives hello excuse me um so I'll start off with sports the ice hockey made it to tournament um they seven wins and three losses and two ties boys winter track ended the season with 10 wins and three losses girls winter track seven wins and six losses boys basketball also made it to tournament with 11 wins and 10 losses and finally girls basketball made it a tournament and ended the season with 19 wins and four losses I'll move on to clubs student council recently held read Across America to celebrate Dr Seuss's birthday and um representatives from the student council stayed in

019um they read to children who came and we didn't have a large turnout but because of the weather but it's always really nice cuz all of the kids really love it um we had the dress Drive March 1st and 2nd um and on March 2nd it was open to the public and we had um people come from pretty far away and it was nice to see some returning members and we had a lot of um men's attire this year which was really nice um the student council recently attended the hyenas concert for masc um which was took place March 6th through 8th and um that was a really fun experience I went myself and it was my first year and my last year which is kind of sad but um we did a lot of

020workshops we had two keynote speakers that were really inspiring and it was an overall good experience um they are going to have a wac bonding at the Hadley Mall on March 23rd so um student council members from around western Mass will go and just hang out at the Hadley Mall excuse me at the Hadley Mall and bleacher Wars and class Olympics is coming which up which the um student council hosts and that will take part on March 29th which is a half day um and the classes compete to decorate um their bleachers and kind of it's like a competition so they win and class Olympics consists of mini games in the gym Key Club um they volunteered at Stone Soup CA Cafe March 9th and they participated in arts and crafts with the kids at

021the Academy of early learning on March 5th and they're preparing for a badm tournament to um bring in food for a food drive French club they're planning the next coffee house which is March 27th the tri music Honor Society is um they've started having mentoring on Wednesday after school for people who need it and they're going to have a meeting March 11th future Business Leaders of America their donuts came in so that was good um and they're still preparing for their trip to Boston which is coming up really soon the drama club they're performing clue this year and the performances will be on April 4th and 5th at 7:00 p.m. and April 6th at 2: p.m. and it's $3 for children and students $5 for adults Drama Oh I just said that sorry um AV

022club recently started um and they're establishing what the club should do they're exploring the members interests um and they're um learning about the equipment that they can use NHS is having a meeting March 18th and spectrum is brainstorming t-shirt ideas and they visited the G GSA at the middle school and hosted a pizza slovie night with the gsas from from Frontier and Turners and to end I will discuss other events that have been going on and will um be in the future at the high school so we recently had Taste of world cultures which is Al always like a really fun n night um we had lots of different food the fashion show we had the break dancers come back um the Irish Step dancers we had um two people who taught the audience how

023to salsa um and the ton for the band is coming up which is March 19th 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. which is going to be broadcasted on gctv and uh I think wh radio if I'm correct um and it's always a good way to make um you call in to make donations the band and individual performances um will be happening the Travis Leo concert is also a band fundraiser and that's happening this sat Saturday and it might be sold out by now but I heard that they are selling still selling tickets at the world eye book store so I don't know um there's an open house uh March 28th from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the high school which is open to the public and clubs will have tables and a ghs senior is running a

024drag queen Story Hour this Sunday at the library from 10: to 11:00 a.m. for elementary school students and that is all thank you I have one question for Morgan are you going to demonstrate to the salsa that you performed so well the other night you can say no you can say yeah I don't just I saw you it was fun are there any uh questions or comments for our student rep thank you so much for coming there's so much fun stuff going on it's great to hear from you every time thank you thanks a lot okay yeah thank you so much so I don't have much to say today chairperson report um so I'll just leave it at that skip right on over to the superintendent nice short and sweet we are starting our superintendent's

025Report with some amazing visitors our very own Green Wave girls I'm going to ask our fabulous basketball team to come for the head coach John Hickey R A we have another coach please come to the microphone I'd like to recognize uh the Green Wave girls basketball team played at the cage we they were fantastic they had a great season come on up come on up come on up right here uh the mayor was there a number of the uh members of the public have been involved in supporting these girls throughout an amazing season uh I'm going to ask um some of the folks here tonight if they want to say a few words but before we do I just want to tell you we could not be more proud of you uh I had the

026pleasure of being at both games at the cage you guys played amazing you girls gals y'all played great it was a lot of fun I was the crazy lady trying to make everyone do the wave um and you know we couldn't be more proud of you and it's not about the winds or losses I know you've heard it a million times but to be in the cage first time in 29 years that you're playing at that level we are so proud of you and what you have done and more than that we're proud of who you each are you play great as a team but you're each of you are amazing athletes amazing Scholars you're good people it shows on the court it shows in the classroom we could not be more proud good coaching

027good kids thank you yeah I would just like you can [Laughter] sit that's why she's a captain she tells me what to do uh I'd just like to thank everybody here for inviting us uh it was the girls were excited when they found out we were excited I'm a crier um that's why I'm not talking yeah but it's bittersweet um but I just want to introduce two very important people um my assistant coaches uh Andy rup is a special ed teacher at the high school and a volunteer that came on this year who has a lot of knowledge he coached in college a few years back in the mid90s so he brought a lot of knowledge and um and the girls love him and he still owes some people's some watermelon though I think and

028then Coach Roy Emerson who is a um area businessman has been coaching 30 plus years in the area at least 15 plus right here in Greenfield I believe pardon 15 in Greenfield or so yeah at least that I volunteered like 10 years before he he's volunteered and uh he's been we've been together since I've been here eight years and he's a great guy and the girls love him too so without them this couldn't happen so thank you thank you Captain you want to say anything I'll say [Laughter] something um I would like to say thank you to the community and my teammates for the past 5 years and supporting me and everyone throughout this journey ditto yeah all right all right super thank you so [Applause] much thank you for coming good night thank you

029great game you can coach my daughter a couple years later so it's great to have them here recognizing an amazing season all right next we have some more fantastic special guests and I'm going to ask three incredible Educators one two three there they are please come forward um to be acknowledged in front of this committee I'm going to again tear up probably I [Laughter] know so um I'd like to ask you to give a round of applause to three amazing teachers our grin spoon Award winners for excellence in teaching these incredibly dedicated teachers are some of our best and brightest and uh one of them is retiring this year another one is at the beginning of her journey here in Greenfield after three years and miss Warren is we're just grateful every day that you

030stick around with us so hang in there and stay with us um Madame Grogan teaches French at the middle at the high school uh Miss solder teaches at the four corner school and miss Warren teaches at Newton School please give them a round of applause I won't make anybody give a speech but if there's anything you'd like to say now would be the time just be sure to turn on the mic I just want to say that there's an actual tier on the table um I just want to say I've been in front of this committee many many times um and just thank you for the support through all the years of being able to go on trips and being able to run fundraisers and all the things that we've done to make the language

031department at Greenfield High School um a place where things get done so um I I couldn't appreciate it more thank you sure something different I want to say thank you I want to say thank you as well um I'm really honored I looked over what the IIA who um had nominated me had written and there were a lot of wonderful things in there and I I take it very seriously since this is someone who is in my classroom all the time um one of the pieces that stood out was um that she found me to be inclusive and in my classroom one of the values that I really instill is being inclusive of all of the kids um in the room I've taught to uh committee members children Sons um and so it's really an

032honor when you're in a role and you have so much power as a teacher that um someone is seeing that you're modeling what you're teaching and it was an honor to have someone see me as being inclusive of Staff um and of all children of varying abilities um and so I was h honored to know that I was modeling it for others and not just um not just saying it in front of the children and I do firmly believe that kids are looking at us all of the time um as their compasses and I every day come to work really grateful to work for this community and in this community to live in this community and I really believe in the future of these kids um it's a wonderful job so thank you um I

033would like to say that I am very honored by my Newton School family which I have been at for many years and I just love working there I enjoy working in the city of Greenfield and I'm just so happy to be honored this way it really really feels great to be working for 23 years in Greenfield and 36 years total and I just enjoy what I do and I have a great time with the kids and all of us learn together every day and I appreciate it big shout out to Newton family thank you so much and thank you I want to add one little detail which is that um I think I'm I'm U I'm very sad to be retiring um I'm going to miss my kids so much I'm going to miss my

034colleagues and my friends so much but I think that it's time to retire when you have taught one of the school committee members it was you was it your first year it was her first year in Greenfield and I was on the cusp of whether or not I liked foreign language and she sealed the deal um a in a good way in a good way I loved it and I definitely one of the teachers that stands out forever so I'm really glad that I have a picture of member Karan in uh friendlies on a field trip that we took one of the very first ones I ever took I love it I was trying to remember what I called myself um I did pass out the article that was in um local media regarding the

035taste of world cultures and and I did pass that out in part because uh it highlights Madame grogan's contributions to that signature event we just had the 23rd annual um and you know the staff are very clear that this has your imprint all over it and um we hope to see you back next year sitting at the table and also dancing but we thank you for your contributions and the life and joy that you brought to World languages and we hope that only continues to take off from here and to all of you we know that you do not go into education to be recognized and nobody uh sitting up here tonight ask to be singled out but your colleagues see you your principales support you and out of all of the teachers that were

036nominated this year um I wholeheartedly stand behind the three of you as absolute uh models of what excellent teaching in the Greenfield Public Schools and across the Commonwealth in the country look like thank you thank you thank you thank you crying kind of even I know all right I'll move to some upcoming events and try not to try to keep back the tears from now on um all right a couple of things that you should be aware of um March 12th we have an open house at the Academy of early learning you do have a flyer on that in your packet also in your packet uh is notification of the Greenfield Public Schools filmfest the flyer is here our advertisements have been out we do have a number of community sponsors that are out there

037uh preparing for this to be a wonderful event it will be May 10th it is a Friday at Greenfield High School uh this is our n9th annual it's been a great event we're expanding it to an Arts showcase this year as well um and we are looking forward to that so please mark your calendars for that exciting event March 14th we have a CPAC special education parent advisory committee meeting coming up um Thursday March 28th and Friday March 29th we have early release for parent teacher conferences um we do have a kindergarten screening day coming up in April on April 12th and as I mentioned the film fest um on May 10th please look for those events uh for those teachers that are just awarded the uh grinspoon award you have a extra assignment of

038showing up to the log cabin for a banquet dinner in May with yours truly sorry about that uh but we'll try to feed you some nice food there you go um also in my report this evening I was asked to speak oh two other events that I'd like to highlight at the middle school um the uh pjs for cancer event at the middle school raised $725 for American Childhood Cancer and March is Penny pennies for patients and green Greenfield Middle School's goal was $1,500 pennies for patients and Newton School just also completed penny wars and donated um I don't have the exact amount but donated to the uh Sheriff's Office I believe was the recipient Franklin County Sheriff's Office I do had uh an award of $1,962 uh from Newton's penny wars and here is

039a photo I can pass around of the children presenting a check to the Sheriff's Office and a puppy dog the puppy dog was very happy to receive that that check from the penny wars raised at Newton School to a charity of their choice charity or cause um we were asked to speak about the uh telephone system at Greenfield High School so I will comment on that um essentially the status of the Greenfield telephone system at the high school is that it is working uh there was uh this request actually came forward previous to any concern but there was one day where we experienced a brief uh telephone outage which this committee was made aware of uh that same day and that was due to a faulty part uh that would be very costly to keep

040um on back order as a replacement part it would have been about $3,000 to have that part at the ready it was under warranty it was replaced and our Tech staff uh did work diligently until those telephone systems were repaired um that was limited to that one day that outage um and that was uh I believe February 7th so approximately a month ago now um but I will say that currently the phones are fully operational you can reach u a live person you go through the prompts and you can enter an extension um to reach the appropriate party so we do have all um Services up and running um and we do use the voiceover internet um service at the Greenfield High School which was the recommendation of the Greenfield uh School schol building committee

041that designed the high school at the time um next in my report um I also wanted to note that a couple of other recent events in addition to what you heard about from our middle or sorry our high school rep tonight uh is that Federal Street School Newton School uh Four Corner School all participated in read Across America uh I was able to participate at Federal Street and read to a second grade class which was wonderful and today at Greenfield Middle School I was able to observe a theater performance of the play which is widely acclaimed um called hoodie and if any of you were able to see this yesterday and today where their performances um it's really a testament to the fact that we have a full-time theater teacher at Greenfield Middle School a

042beautiful performance space and the engagement of our students and the willingness to put themselves out in a performance piece was really um inspiring and quite touching the piece talks about the struggles of being an adolescent in Middle School um and uh self-acceptance and image issues that are such important issues at that time and what it's like to struggle with individuality and sort of breaking away from uh the pack so to speak and really seeing one another and uh building friendships and and collaborative relationships it was really beautiful um directed by Christine Stevens our theater teacher and and really um nicely done so I just wanted to give a shout out to that um in your packet tonight you also have the regular Financial reports and if there are any questions we can go through those

043it includes the um uh memo to the school committee with a budget forecast from our business manager as well as the customary reports those are all included and then of course you have the newsletters for the school also on email I put out the um superintendent's social media page which highlights essentially what I've been up to for the last 30 days it is 33 pages long from this month so I did not print color copies but I have a Desk Reference if anybody is interested didn't want to deprive you um but it is a really when you look back at the things that are happening around the district is really remarkable how much happens in a given day and the great things that our our students and teachers are up to thank you are there

044any questions or comments for the superintendent or business manager okay I'll just say um I really look forward to the grinspoon winners every year um and sometimes we get lost in policy and budgets and you know talking about the details of the public comment policy and it's really nice to um Circle back to what this is really all about and teaching and learning is is what we're doing here in this this organization and I appreciate all the um hard work that our teachers put into teaching our students and all of all that they're investing in our community so thank you and thanks for um bringing them to our meeting um I just want to clarify if there are any further questions about the telephone system in particular our director of technology is present here tonight

045if there are any further questions beyond what I've covered I will excuse her if there are no questions for her any questions okay that's it thank you thank you thank you so much for [Laughter] coming okay let's see um subcommittees seeing that member Ward is not here would another member of the budget subcommittee like to report out on any work they are doing sure uh the the chair me Cameron Ward was able to uh be present remotely on March 12th at 1:30 p.m. we had a meeting at the Town Hall uh there's only one item on the agenda was to review and approve the open meeting law complaint response um on the allegations by Adrien Nunes so we met um we also U besides the members uh Steven Airco was available uh and we taped

046the meeting the response uh was discussed similar to the um earlier March meeting I think it was March 7th when we went line by line uh responding uh calling them AB cdef and then also responding to the remedy saw um the it is the response to the attorney general is due tomorrow uh that's why we had the meeting on the 12th and all members agreed uh to sign and we'll send it in tomorrow I have a copy for the chair this evening who also is the as also is the complainant and I can pass that down to you now and all school committee members will receive a copy tomorrow when we send it to the attorney general thank you mayor Martin you're welcome any comments or questions for the budget subcommittee okay um member Karen

047did you want to report out on the health safety and Facilities subcommittee sure um a good portion of our meeting was um speaking about the bus rots um and some information from all involved to discuss their safety and we've already covered that with um including them in our new budget um but the other two things we really talked about were um the new SRO mou language sent to us from the attorney general and how um our chief of police felt about it and what we thought about it and he has requested a opinion from attorney Sullivan on his thoughts and as a uh subcommittee we thought that was a really great idea and that perhaps it would behoove the school committee to also ask for an opinion um you know he's getting one doesn't necessarily

048mean we have to but multiple requests may be fielded differently um and then we also heard from many members of our um Community both of fire and police chief about possibly using our schools as Emergency Shelters and they both thought that that was not a good use of our space um there were many levels of safety issues to be worried about um and they would absolutely not recommend that it would be a last resort of any kind if ever a resort um so we had a very productive meeting we um we came to a consensus that we agreed with them about the emergency shelter I'm not sure that we need a full committee vote for that but it's possible okay um thank you member Karen is are you interested in putting forward a motion related

049to um requesting opinion from attorney Sullivan or is that something that should should wait or I think it can wait I don't think okay we can you know see if we' haven't gotten a response through the chief in say 60 days if we feel we need to move faster um we did discuss that our current mou is just continues on unless we decide it doesn't um and as long as everybody who originally signed it is able to sign it again it is just a signature that's needed um so it didn't need our immediate hard work um but it is something that's coming along the line okay thank you and I see member Holland yes do you mind if I add something I just want to clarify the emergency shelter a little bit more there were

050two types of emergency shelter mentioned one is an ongoing shelter save for the homeless something like that that's going on over days and another is an emergency incident like uh like a storm and there's no power the schools aren't running and so for that moment there's an emergency need to shelter families that don't have heat or something like that that's short term and in fact there is only one incident emergency shelter in town and it is the middle school and the discussion was about the generator outside of all the power goes out in town that the DPW has taken over the emergency generator for the first floor of the middle school because it is the designated uh incident emergency shelter but so the discussion was that any kind of shelter need that goes on for

051days and days can't be part of the school system because it's a functioning school system great thank you member Helens okay um I believe that the POC sub policy subcommittee um had to cancel their meeting due to snow um and that meeting is in the process of being rescheduled and the negotiations subcommittee did not meet so I think that concludes everything with subcommittees um school committee Representatives do we have anything member exam from the collaborative for Educational Services uh we have not had a meeting our next meeting is the 27th and it's actually in this month 27th yes um and it's in Greenfield they alternate between um the transportation building and the their office in Northampton so this month month it's here thank you and member Hollands um planning and construction planning and construction met

052but I was unable to go and I haven't found out what they covered yet but I will thank you okay so moving on to our business item number one is the 20192020 school committee calendar so you have this in your packet and superintendent did you want to comment on this yes one moment yes mayor Martin thank you madam president do we I don't see anything on here for for the finance discussion so that was covered in the superintendent report um and I did check in whether or not everyone has any questions for the superintendent or Steve the business manager would you like to speak to the financial reports we yes yeah sure um Steve do you want to come down thank you is it unusual that we don't have Steve up here on the regular

053basis I usually he's you know he uh oh Oh you mean like in front or do you mean no I mean on the agenda it says business manager finances we have have been including this in the superintendent report pretty regularly yeah thank you um Steve one uh kind of like Skylight Global question yeah um is the the year to date expended to date like March 1st or yeah it would be the first of the month okay yeah so then um there's one3 of the year left and 2/3 have have been expend it so then would you consider 1/3 of the encumbrances to be half of the 2/3 okay so if you have if you spent $6 well the point is that um we've got to the year expended for eight months we have four months

054left yes and of the four months left that are encumbered it seems like it would equal four months of the previous eight it it would however we do pay teachers during the summer so so there'll be a higher amount so next fiscal year is in this fiscal year for the summer no what we do is when we close out we create a reserve account and that was done last year with Elizabeth uh in order to create that basically a reserve account then pay out those folks in the summer with that with the correct fiscal Year's money and the Surplus from that account would go where um there was not a surplus um and but I assume if there was a surplus it would go to the city so we have just looking at North Parish

055we've we've expended 255,000 and we have 180,000 encumber for the the next third of the Year MH and then we have also $91,900 available in that budget yes so we've nearly we nearly have enough encumbered for the first eight months and then we still have nearly $100,000 Surplus yeah what you're doing is you're pointing out um some of the difficulties I've had with this budget again I did not create this budget and I was not here when it was originally set up um a lot of folks were put in very odd places uh so what we're going to need to do is transfer those surpluses around to the negatives uh because for example we we made Greenfield Middle School teachers we we were pay we are paying and we paying uh some high school teachers

056out of there they were just not coded correctly uh from when they they originally showed up so and then to do that mid year you have to account for the midyear salary plus the summer it it it becomes very time consuming and unfortunately my time has been spent doing other things at this point but now that I have a bit of a reprieve I can the the plan is is to start cleaning up those those balances uh have have any Revenue accounts been applied to the operating budget yeah um recently what we applied were we applied some um uh Ida Grant as well as circuit breaker money uh if You' saw any of the old um old uh uh sheets the um out of District placement account was uh quite large uh so what we're

057doing is bringing that down by Design uh by uh plan that was made in fy18 for the fy19 budget in order to spend down those revolving accounts and those uh offset funds so the incumbrances on the revolving accounts would they um they are to be transferred to the operating account that is correct so the incumbrances with just the revolving as about 1.28 million exactly will be transferred to the operating account which currently expects to uh spend 7.5 million in the next 90 120 days well 120 days plus the uh the teachers who get paid in the summer so certainly we don't have all the teachers in the summer actually quite a number of them get paid for for during the summer because oh it's regular annual salary stretched out over 12 months I thank you

058okay I didn't have time to go deeply into this thank you that and I see member Holland yes the mayor asked a question that piqu my interest the teachers work 101 81 days in a budget calendar year and then they have the choice of spreading that money out over 12 months so when it gets to Summer isn't that some summer pay part of the salary of the prior year not the current year uh because it's part of their like if we paid once July 1 rolled around it was part of their fy18 salary that they chose to distribute over the summer it's but did you yeah basically what we we uh we budget for their entire salary but pay it over the 12 months so once July 1 rolls around there's a balance left that

059rolls into a reserve account and then they're paid out of that Reserve account during the summer okay but it's still fy18 money that's pulled over it's not fy9 exactly yes thank you you're welcome any other questions or comments for Steve okay thank you thanks a lot okay back to the um draft calendar for next year um all right in front of you you have the 20192020 calendar uh we know that many parents look forward W and families look forward to the approval of the calendar because they get to Mark the vacations and put them on their refrigerator for the following year so I am going to ask you to approve the calendar this evening a previous draft came before you um since that draft the calendar has gone to the um appropriate contractual units which

060is according to the teachers contract for example for feedback from the membership um and then has had subsequent um some of those additions were incor some of those revision were Incorporated some were not um but the revisions have all been considered and the calendar in front of you tonight we think um represents the best uh calendar for next year a few highlights are that we start the first day of school for all students is August 28th again starting before Labor Day um we do keep the meet and greet feature right at the beginning of the year for families uh with the elementary middle school and high school we do have new teacher orientation and then teachers professional development um in early October we will have an open house um for the middle and high school

061that is on one night and for the Elementry that's on a different night and that was based on feedback from this past year about families wanting to visit multiple schools with children at lots of different levels and wanting to to be sure to be able to attend those and we've also moved it earlier in the season um because we had um parent teacher conferences later in October right around the time of the open house and folks were just there for one event and we wanted to space those two out so families could come back for both of those events so that was again in response to feedback other than that this is very similar to last year's calendar um with a December vacation February vacation and April vacation and the last day of school including

062five snow days would be June 18th and this does meet the requirements for time on learning and we would ask that you approve this uh before you tonight okay is there a motion to approve the draft calendar for the 2019 2020 school year moved by member extrom seconded second by member Karen any discussion yes yes member extra I so I'm not from here February break is not a normal thing where I come from and I don't I guess I don't understand the rationale for it and here so here's my thinking so we have have essentially two weeks of vacation for the holidays just for you know the end of December start of the school year or start of the new year and then they have one day off that is let's see in the 24th

063there 24th there's no school for teacher and service in January the 20th there's no school for Martin Luther King day and odds are pretty good I think this year has kind of been out of the ordinary they're going to have five or six days on off for snow within that time so really they act they have 28 days of school from the start of January until their break and then they have another break in April I'm I don't know what the rationale for the February break is so I'm hoping that someone can enlighten me I I guess that's my question okay um superintendent do you have any information on the history of the February break how far back do we want to go H honestly I mean the school vacation calendar is built around an

064agrarian society and the plowing and harvesting and uh times when the fields are very muddy and cold but but in all um seriousness to to today's families I do believe that many families expect this schedule it is not a change it is consistent with the past um if the committee was interested in seriously considering eliminating the February vacation and combining it with the April vacation some districts have done this and if if they do they tend to adopt a March vacation and eliminate the one week of vacation altogether um I'm not sure how popular that would be but if this committee were considering that I would seriously request that you give that um plenty of public input and uh advanced notice and that that uh significant a change not happen tonight thank you superintendent any

065um additional comments or questions related or deliberation on the fy20 calendar okay seeing none we have a motion on the table to approve the fy20 calendar all those in favor I I I I okay I believe that is unanimous so there it is we've got a calendar thank you okay so the next item is some Pro propo proposed draft changes to the school website this was brought forward by member xtram several months ago and was delayed for good reason a couple of times um so this is just a draft document um member exam did you want to speak briefly to your interest in modifying the website I can do we need to do a motion or something you just want to speak briefly to like the origin of this document just as a reminder to

066us okay um so I just in perusing our websites and now that I've been sitting here on the committee I um I think that there's not a real clear picture of what it is the school committee does and the subcommittees do and the superintendent role and I thought maybe um just changing a little bit of a text or making a little bit more apparent when you go to the school committee landing page might help to alleviate some confusion about who is doing what uh you know what specifically I mean the budget committee obviously that's kind of apparent what they're doing but for example the uh what is it Katie Katie's what is it safety and that's not necessarily you wouldn't look at that and think that the some of the things that go on in

067her committee are things that would be discussed um which doesn't say they shouldn't be but it's not apparent just from the title of it and so the text is just sort of an expansion it's not written in stone by any means I'm not if we want to change it that's fine I just think it would be helpful for people in the community and anyone else who goes to the we website and gets a better idea of exactly what it is we do and how decisions are how decisions are made you know when when people come to committee meetings and say we had we talked about the budget and how the budget are we going to approve it there's a lot of behind the scenes discussion and that isn't necessarily clear unless you are paying attention

068thank you member exam um I what I don't want to do tonight is have a big group um editing process on TV um and I think that there is a need to add some input in addition I am well aware that the policy subcommittee is also reviewing some language related to our standing subcommittees and it could be helpful to include that here uh question before I move is superintendent is there someone in your office perhaps the school committee secretary or someone helping with the secretarial tasks that could receive re input from the committee and help to kind of move this document into the next phase yes my concern would be how that process would be open meeting LW compliant I'm not I'm I'm not sure I I think you have a good suggestion there I'm

069not sure how that would work operationally um I believe that if members want to send input to a school staff member without including other members um that may way that individual staff member can compile it maybe just take in that input and kind of just bring this draft up to the next level sure we could certainly receive any input and compile it um my concern would just be then communicating back out those changes and and getting to a draft that everybody agrees with you could conceivably receive two different sets of feedbacks that are conflicting from two different people so um I'm I I don't um don't want to step on toes but one suggestion that might work is having a subcommittee that would also review this okay I move that the [Music] um I guess

070the policy and program subcommittee take this on um so my motion clearly for the record would be to move that at the policy and program subcommittee review the draft web page changes and bring a second draft to an upcoming meeting either April or May or is that a second four cool so was I moved it member Exum seconds um deliberation I see member Hollands um I I don't agree so let me explain what I think we the policy subcommittee I believe should be working on what you said which is the policy on subcommittees uh there was a long discussion on whether or not our policy should have a charge you know here are the standing subcommittees one is not an elt task force that was a situational committee which I don't even know if it

071exists now and that there was a suggestion that we should have it shouldn't just be up to whomever's on the committee uh charge for each subcommittee and I do think that should go to the policy subcommittee but as for the text and go you know other parts of the school committee website I think maybe just asking if someone else wants to work with uh member Eep extrom because there's some other issues like posting our minutes and making sure that the time that subcommittees meet anyway there's a whole section for the school committee so I I don't agree I I do agree that the standing committee charge should be worked on by the policy committee because we have a policy on that thank you member Holland um any other discussion I just want to clarify that

072um it's my understanding that what we're doing is reviewing these draft changes to the website the draft changes that have been presented um and not necessarily having looking at the entire website and offering feedback on the entire website [Music] um so this is essentially like giving feedback on the actual language content of the site as opposed to say what was just mentioned which would been like where and how the draft minutes are posted could I clarify one if our policy on sub standing subcommittee says here's the charge of each subcommittee then the wording could be that the the school committee has several subcommittees for clarification of their charge and a link but to the policy m I we can make whatever changes we want this was meant to be people friendly as opposed to um

073policy you know based on policy this is what this one does this is what that one does this was more of a uh in my mind it was more kind of a marketing piece and I I don't disagree with you Susan by any means I just that wasn't kind of my um thought process when I was going through it couple question yes mayor Martin uh just a couple observations um I understand that the the school department's website is not on the city's website it's a link attached to the city um and is that still uh falling into the realm of the liability coverage that the city has I've been told that it doesn't and in fact our technology department is working through a a program now with the state to to see how that all

074these other offline semi-official um websites are being used representing the city of Greenfield number two how did uh this website get started and who who created the original uh language so I think we're getting a little oh who created the original language we're modifying something that I don't know who who did create the do you know superintendent I feel like I have a vag Rec elction that the school committee did provide some a basic draft I can go back and look it up yeah I think the committee did [Music] um sorry I don't know the answer so I think part of the policy committee would be developing what the what are the regulations that we need to follow if we're going to consider it an official website okay um slightly off top topic but I'll

075make a note of that okay so the motion on the table right now is to have the policy subcommittee review the language that's presented here and return with a second draft um any other deliberation on that okay all those in favor I I all those opposed I'm opposed okay any abstentions okay so this will go to policy subcommittee for some review and it will bounce back to the full committee for further consideration okay um just reading I thought it was on the wrong no just reading ahead want to make a note of okay great um so the next item on our agenda is the filling of a vacant seat so um we have had member Alexander resigned from the school committee um thank you member Alexander for your service to this committee um I've always

076appreciated how member Alexander has been such a huge advocate for the public schools and for really truly for our students and our teachers and um I've always appreciated his enthusiasm willingness to jump into his duties as a school Committee Member but also um really vocally support our students so thank you to member Alexander um for your service to Greenfield and now that we have a vacancy on the school committee we need to fill it um so in your packet what we have here um I included the policy on school committee voluntary resignation was a voluntary resignation um and member Alexander um submitted the resignation to the city clerk as the policy indicates and then also there is policy B BBE that's b as and boy um unexpired term fulfillment and I'll read it off quickly

077it's very short when a vacancy on the school committee occurs for any reason the remaining members of the committee share the responsibility the vacancy on the school committee will be announced publicly residents will submit letters of interest to the chairperson after being advised of all applicants the vacancy shall be filled by a majority vote of the remaining members following new member election following new member election by the the school committee the chairperson will determine any committee assignments persons elected to fill a vacancy by the school committee Shall Serve only until the next regular election at which time the vacancy shall be filled by the voters so there are a couple of things that the committee really um needs to consider today so as you can see here our policy is um pretty basic and it

078just outlines that anyone interested should submit a letter of interest um and then we vote on it but in the past we have followed some slightly more um involved process and at times we've invited individuals to come and speak to the committee um and had sort of allow them to make a statement and sometimes answer questions um and then we would have a vote on those individuals and so that's not included in the policy so I think what we want to do today is really clear up how we want to handle this um and also potentially set some deadlines um you know in the past we have appointed individuals pretty quickly um usually giving about a month of time um so I think that it would be really helpful to the public to know any

079relevant deadlines that we want to set and then any other parts of the process that we anticipate I'm seeing member Hollands could we clarify the length of the term sure so according to policy the appointment would serve until essentially the end of this calendar year and this position this seat will be up for election at the November election this year this year and yes member extra and that would be another that would be an additional two-year seat as opposed to because Don seat is a full fouryear seat yes so my understanding is that there will be um on the ballot one twoe seat and three fouryear seats at the November election so this is like an eight month term yes thank you you're welcome okay so um to start this off I guess I'll I'll

080put forward a motion for us um I move that the Greenfield school committee accept letters of Interest until I don't know when I don't have my phone our next meeting I think it should be before that yeah I'm looking for some dates do you know how long it would take to put an ad in the paper a notice um I think about two or three days it's usually pretty quick um so our next school committee meeting is April 10th and I propose that the school committee receive letters of interest until um the end of the day Monday April 1st I'll second that okay is there any discussion on this I might just quickly I think that that allows us enough time to ensure that we um organize all of them and make sure all committee

081members have them and have plenty of time before the next regular meeting um for us to review them yes member Hollands so I move that we put an ad there's a motion on the table first but hold hold that thought um mayor Martin and could you press your button thank you press my button I will um is the is the notice and I I'm thinking along the same lines I guess for some people if we um if we advertise publicly as the policy suggests then we also have everyone has the knowledge that they have to draw the papers to run in the election in April so even though they will may serve till December if nobody takes out papers then we will have a vacancy in November so we need to to protect ourselves for

082we can't force people to run but somebody's got to run for the seat or this temporary appointment will become permanent January 1st what I am not following what you're suggesting actually we're filling a vacancy until the next city election which is in November but to be on the ballot in November you have to take out papers in April and return them so you're just reminding the public that if any individual is interested in an appointment and they want to continue and also run for office they also have to go through the the process of running for office right I guess I'm saying that and then I'm asking the committee what what shall be our choices if nobody takes out papers to run as a candidate then this position expires December 31st I I guess I

083don't that's for a discussion at another wondering what basically what I think mayor Martin's wondering is if nobody runs for this two-year seat uhuh what do we do then well I believe that um the committee would have a a vacancy the new committee starting on January 1 would have a vacancy and then be looking for an appointment that's my my understanding of the process um I would encourage the new committee to then reach out to the city clerk and ensure that that um you know proper process is being followed but that's my understanding of what would happen if if no one ran for the 2-year seat um you were to take a vote right member Holland did okay yeah so there's a motion on the table to uh receive letters of Interest until the end

084of the day Monday April 1st who seconded that did you second that I did okay thank you um any further conversation on that yes remember Holland when you say letter of interest are you do you mean Communications cuz so in our policy it states that if someone's interested in being appointed to the school committee to fill the unexpired seat that they should submit letters of interest to the chairperson will email I'm just clarify oh whether it should be email or snail mail okay thank you for that clarification um I strongly prefer email my email address is ADR N1 gpsk12.org if there's anyone out there that would like to send us nail mail we can make some arrangements for that we use the superintendent to you at the superintendent's office I think that's a good idea

085yeah to send to the superintendent's office thank you um okay so again motion on the table for this first deadline of when we will stop receiving letters of Interest any more questions comments okay all those in favor I I I I okay so that is unanimous and then the second piece is um how do we [Music] envision I in the past we have had we've invited um folks who have submitted letters of interest to the school committee meeting um and allowed them to make a brief statement and occasionally we've had a little bit of uh question and answer most of the time it I think it's just been mainly a statement [Music] um I'm not sure it's hard to gauge how many individ individuals we will have submitting letters of interest um but I guess

086the question I'm asking is do we want to include that as part of the process um to allow them to come to our meeting I'm seeing member Helens well I think think we should at least meet the people so but I think the next step though is posting the notice but I I think the process should at least involve people introducing themselves to us so we know who they are okay so um I Heard the start of a motion from you earlier to post in the newspaper I'd like to move that the superintendent post a public notice of the 8mon school committee opening with the uh needed information for applying okay is there a second second second by mayor Martin thank you any deliberation on that okay um all those in favor I I I

087that is unanimous great um and then I will move to invite man to invite the um folks interested in that have submitted letters of interest to the committee to attend our April regular meeting provide a twom minute maximum statement and be [Music] prepared to potentially answer questions from committee members is there a second second second my member Karen would you read it again please sure um I don't have it all the way written out but uh Susan Farber where are you I think you said I said to um invite the individuals who submit letters of interest to the committee to come to the April regular meeting provide a TW minute maximum statement to the committee and be prepared to potentially answer questions from committee members okay um any conversation any deliberation on that okay great

088um I just want to say that I uh again have kind of no idea how many people will submit letters of Interest a couple of people have already reached out to me um inquiring about it and we've received two thus far so um we will definitely we definitely want to have an opportunity to to meet people um and but also we'll be probably limiting our question it won't be like a full extensive interview simply due to time okay all those in favor I I I I believe that's unanimous okay so I guess the only other thing that I guess if we want I'm not sure if we necessarily need a motion on this but um do we want to say that our intent is to make this appointment at the April regular meeting that was

089my intent with having them come to that meeting unless there's a reason not to I I support that but there may be something that happens okay yeah member hanss I just have one more question sure will you be collecting all of these applications and so for the April 1 meeting we will get them all at one time or will they be so the meeting is not on April 1st the meeting is on April 10th um the question is will we get these all in a packet at one time so the answer is yes um I have sent you the the full committee the two letters of interest that um I have received thus far I've just sent them in real time however I intend to package everything together and of course they will also be

090included in our full committee packet for the meeting so at some point they will definitely be um put side by side together I would prefer we get them all together so we're not tempted to you know for some that come a month in advance anyway I would prefer we just get them all together in a packet um I'll move okay do you want to move that yeah I'll move that uh the applications uh be provided to the school committee in a packet and not in advance not individually as they arrive is there a second second second by member extrm any conversation on that um the only thing that I would say is that you know it's a little bit I guess unfair because I've already sent the two out to the committee um so as

091long as I guess we're okay with that I don't really have a strong preference yes superintendent never mind no comment okay any comments anything okay all those in favor I um pardon did you have a comment just wanted to clarify um could we continue to send out the individual c as they come in so my understanding is what's being suggested through this motion is that the that that would not be the case that I would hold back those letters of Interest until one time after April 1st when they get sent out to the committee as a full packet I believe that's is that accurate member HS the packet I don't mind knowing who's applying but yes that was the intent okay that's the intent to hold them back and then present them to the full

092committee as a group after April 1st that's how you handle other applicants for jobs we selecting okay any other questions or comments or anything okay all those in favor I member hounds all those opposed no no okay and I don't think there's any abstentions right okay so the motion fails um can we just have a kind of consensus that I will send them out in real time as best as possible um great so um as I mentioned earlier I will absolutely put them all together into one uh packet like a collective packet um at some point a after April 1st um but as I receive them I'll just send them out to everybody okay and then so then I guess you know I'll move that the intent is to select a new member at the

093April regular meeting barring any unforeseen circumstances or interests of the committee is there a second second my member Hans okay any conversation on that cool all those in favor I I and any opposition your yes okay okay great so motion passes okay so just to quickly summarize for the benefit of the committee and the public we essentially just made the decision that um if anyone is interested in filling the vacant seat they can send emails of interest to me at my email address which is ADR N1 gpsk12.org that's also on the website and I believe on the um town website um we will receive letters of Interest until the end of the day Monday April 1st and it is our intent to select a new Committee Member at the April regular meeting that is April

09410th 2019 and anyone who is submitting letters of Interest should be is invited to to attend the April regular meeting to provide a brief statement to the committee maximum length of 2 minutes and committee members may have questions for them as well we just requested that the superintendant put all of this information into a tidy package and post it in the newspaper okay yes member Hollands I just want to clarify is there any consistent information with we want from these candidates not for the posting uh I guess if there's something that you're interested in I would recommend that if you want to put forward a motion this is what I'm interested in if one person sends a resume and the other person writes I I'm just interested because I live in because I'm interested will

095we then say well this person sent a resume they're more interested so i' just like to clarify if there's any any consistent information I don't care if there is or there isn't I just like to know so the candidates would know you're you should submit this and this or proof of residency or whatever it might be um in order to serve on the school committee you do need to be a resident of Greenfield and um beyond that our policy simply states that individuals should send letters of Interest it doesn't specifically outline that anyone should send anything else um we do receive resumés sometimes um so if you have a specific interest member Holland you should put forward a motion no I just wanted to clarify okay okay great so um that is set thank you

096everyone [Music] now for the next month we'll be without um member Alexander and he was the chairperson of the policy subcommittee as well as the negotiation um pardon the personnel and collective bargaining subcommittee so I'm proposing that um member Karen take over the chair of the policy subcommittee um member Karen is that something that you can take on at this time sure okay um the other I lost my time to oh there it is um member extrm left the room for a second so I also am proposing that member extrm take over chair of personnel and collective bargaining my intent with this is really as interim chair people um for the next month until we have a new Committee Member and then we can kind of decide if we want to make any changes from

097there so this is just to kind of cover us moving forward um I don't actually necessarily anticipate the personnel and collective bargaining subcommittee meeting but we never know um especially if there's no charge really for them from the committee right now um I'm seeing member Holland's hand yeah would would you like to wait because because it's only one meeting cuz the person it may make just so actually with policy I absolutely do not want to wait I think that um you know there is a reschedule happening right now of our no cancellation and there's a lot of work that can continue um so I'm putting forward the recommendation that we allow member Karen to formally take over the chairpersonship of the policy subcommittee great sounds like sounds like Bill approves um so yeah member exam

098thank you for coming back um thank you so much uh I don't anticipate any need for the subcommittee to actually meet um there's no charges for that subcommittee from the full committee at this time however as a formality if you are able to take over the chairperson ship for the next month or so until we make any decisions on subcommittee configuration with a new member can you do that great super okay so I would love a motion to support the interim chairperson position of member extrm as chair of personnel and collective bargaining and member Karen as chair of policy until any further subcommittee reconfiguration may occur with a new member lots of words to do a small task huh um is there a second for that I'll move that is there a second second second

099my member action okay all those in favor I I great unanimous thank you very much so that's set um I appreciate your attention to that so the next item is actually the Civics update update and um just almost immediately after posting the agenda I received word that the Civics update will be coming at the April meeting um it's my understanding that um principal Pat node is um helping to present information on the work that's being done at the high school related to um Civics curriculum that needs to be implemented in the next school year so we will see an update on that at the next meeting and then just as a simple reminder there was a one sheet um kind of brief summary from the Desy website that was provided in last month's packet okay

100um number six the superintendent evaluation midcycle review what you have is um a copy of the superintendent's performance goals this I believe may be the first time that we have actually had a midcycle review for the superintendent evaluation um and it's my understanding that this can kind of look a lot of different ways depending upon the committee so what we have here today is the superintendent to provide a verbal update on where things are with the this year's superintendent performance goals thank you chair um so you all have in front of you a copy of the superintendent's performance goals those of you that are viewing at home all of our materials are always online gpsk12.org you can go on the school committee tab for tonight's materials and we also post these goals separately there are

101five goals these are ambitious goals they were voted in November mid November uh with minutes that came in December uh and um in the intervening uh four months so it's not truly mid cycle yet it has been four months almost to the day from the day they were voted um there has been uh the primary focus of the district has been on the budget and the fy20 budget um and as you all know the budget was voted through this committee last Thursday March 8th I believe and the documents for this meeting were due the next day Friday March 9th um so the update that I provide tonight will touch on a few things but I will primarily say that um the work of school district does go in Cycles um because we are focused on

102the children and the students and the teachers uh there's work that looks like it might be divided evenly over the school year that actually comes and goes in the sort of natural rhythms of a classroom and a school district uh for example hiring Cycles uh Grant cycles and evaluation Cycles are just a few amongst those uh I will also note that on that Friday we did work diligently uh to address a payroll issue um which we ordinated with City Hall to address and respond as soon as possible it is our understanding that um that was uh resolved by the close of business that day but we did work closely including my office directly and obviously business office and payroll to also coordinate with the Union teachers union and to issue paper checks to anybody who

103had a an issue with their uh their direct deposit that uh on that payday and we do appreciate everybody's understanding um please be assured that the school department did everything that we could and within our power and we were assured it was not the error on the school department side um and so things like that do take precent from time to time uh I will highlight the five key areas of this and give you a brief update the first one is uh Greenfield Public Schools positive role in the community and strengthening that role and this has everything to do with our Partnerships and um foraging connections working with universities and so forth and this work is definitely well underway and continuing um it also highlights my role as the president of the Connecticut Valley superintendence

104Roundtable a role within which I have the opportunity to connect with um area legislators including the Senate President and others that are representing public education and to advance uh the cause of public education as it relates to our students here in Greenfield and that is ongoing uh this includes uh exploring cost savings utilizing print radio and social media to promote the school district and of course maintaining active involvement throughout the city so these are all ongoing these um goals as written are very clearly delineated so in terms of updates they also include eight or nine examples of what evidence will come forward to the committee at the end of the review um when we spoke about the midcycle review as part of the goal setting it was clear that these were not um requested during

105the midcycle review but rather just a check-in um so that we could I'll be on the same page when it comes time for the formal review the second goal is a student learning goal and it has to do with aligned curriculum and student outcomes and in this particular goal I've chosen to focus on a robust vision for aligned curriculum instruction with a particular emphasis on the turnaround work at Greenfield Middle School again this was voted back in November um I'm proud to say that that work is ongoing and continuing and we do have senior leadership at the Department of Education in the state systems of support that has been involved with that work led by principal kland um with uh members of The Faculty I believe 15 members of The Faculty are now on the

106turnaround plan teams working on strategic Partnerships in different areas um that work has been underway and we would like to bring before the committee a presentation on what that work means what is um already taking place and what's um upcoming for the future uh we have confirmation that in April the senior leadership that's heading up that team would be available to come before this committee if you'd like to hear from them and of course you saw many members of the Greenfield Middle School staff and the principal is here tonight um next are a number of specifics to that again I won't go through all of these but I will mention maintain and support Greenfield Public Schools strong elective program with consideration in the fy20 budget for expansion of foreign language and integrative Arts programming so

107these are um examples where something may have um come through the cycle already and so maintaining for example strong electives was a an important uh Focus during the budget season there are a couple areas where I need the help of the committee and I will highlight one here in this second goal you see that the second to last bullet says enlist the help of school committee parents administrators and Community supporters to highlight the achievements of all of Greenfield Public Schools unique schools with a particular emphasis on underrecognized programs and offerings including a equestrian program and community service learning at Greenfield Middle School and this is really a goal that while I can bring it to your attention I do need the support of the committee to meet this goal and I do hope that we

108can find Avenues to add to the agenda and to explore topics that may not be as familiar to this community and that deserve our attention uh they are programs that are noteworthy that make Greenfield a destination to choice in they're um programs that are important to the quality of the education of our students and we spend so little time talking about them that I'm concerned that the community is not aware of the resources that we actually have so I would like to note that as an area that I feel I would not meet that goal unless I uh were able to Garner the support of the committee on that the third goal is the area of work environment and staff support um and and I will say this is a challenging goal it's an important

109one though and talks about creating a dynamic vibrant work environment that balances accountability with respect for individuals administrators roles as Leaders um and ensures sustainable financing of positions and again this is ongoing work and important work it has to do with negotiating contracts um but also the quality and balance of uh time in our work some things that are ongoing include continuing to expand efforts to recruit and attract well-qualified um employees so for example one area that we had a need was in transportation and our new transportation coordinator has been working very diligently to bring on staff in a critical area um so we've seen crossing guards for example that in areas that were previously vacant like Bernardston Road where we had an acute need for additional crossing guards and that we're now cross trining

110those staff members um so that they're familiar with our students so that's an area of where we're focusing in on recruitment efforts that have been very successful um there the third pullet point is again an area that I'm going to um call out to the committee for your support which is prioritize time on matters affecting student learning limiting distractions outside the instructional core and directing and encouraging administrators to do the same um and this is because as an a supervisor of principles you wear two hats one as a manager and one as a coach and when I'm in the classroom or the schools as a coach what we're talking about is uh how often are you in classrooms and how often are you observing teaching and learning and that's what makes a good principle effective

111because they have positive relationships with students and positive feedback to staff because they're there and they know what's happening for our children if you were to imagine a principal that were only in their classroom sorry only in their office they they simply couldn't be effective at providing feedback on instruction or getting to know our children the same is true for the superintendent if I'm not in the schools and working directly with those principles is very challenging to be affected in uh a turnaround plan or in um supporting and encouraging our uh administrators to have the most Cutting Edge uh teaching feedback to provide to our teachers so in the coach role it's extraordinarily important that we prioritize our children and their learning and that that at the end of the day is what we're here

112to do every day and so I'm just going to ask the committee in thinking about agenda items in thinking about the work of the committee that we can continue to make student learning uh Central to our mission and what we're here to do and that we talk about how students learn and that there be a space for that key critical um work to take place and it requires time and it's the the most valuable gift we can give our students and without it we simply haven't got anything to stand behind um also in here a very simp simple task I think will be accomplished later is uh negotiate collective bargaining agreements we do have very timec consuming collective bargaining going on with all of our major units we're wrapping up our administrative assistance we just

113finished before that cafeteria workers um we are now in uh Unit A with teachers and um Unit C our instructional assistants so all three of these mean that we will be bringing uh continuing good working contracts with these folks but I will need a unit c rep from the school committee which has recently been vacated and the rest of these are ongoing um but with a caveat that I noticed the fourth goal has to do with physically and emotionally safe learning environments and in writing this goal we spoke and thought a lot about the experience of students here in Greenfield that have experienced trauma and about 60% of our students are from lwi income backgrounds and many of these students have moved or relocated to the area and some have experienced some um form of

114what's called by the American Academy of Pediatrics adverse childhood experiences or Aces and there's a lot of research on the impact of Aces on children's academic scores as well as their long-term earning potential and their other um sort of quality of life outcomes and essentially we want children to have their best foot forward so that they move into the future confident and productive and contributing uh to our community here in Greenfield um so these goals have that in mind and a number of these have been met and uh others are still ongoing it has to do with uh first aid training that was provided a number of meetings that have taken place around school safety and emergency um extraordinary work that has to do with regional planning um and expanding that team uh there's work

115on going in the director of pupil service in my office working with multi-tiered systems of support that has to do with academic and emotional systems that are in place to catch not just one or two students not just most students but all students and to support them as best we can and then ongoing relationships with State Police um our school resource officer and Greenfield uh fire that have been um ongoing and continuing and as I say this our our lead nurse is here she's been uh diligently attending these meetings we appreciate you being here and um we have really done a lot of good work in this area in both social emot and physical safety that I think uh put our district in a very strong position and then the last goal has to do

116with supporting the school committee's key initiatives one of the votes of the committee this year was to continue um I'm sorry to initiate the um review of the policy uh work and in updating the entire policy manual all 300 or more policies um and so that is something that uh my office has made a priority and is going through that work is underway and moving forward well there is one thing that I would like um your support on which is just to note that there's been several questions about the fourth bullet point which is uh in my goals it states that the committee voted to post uh for interview hire and train a administrative assistant or recording secretary to support the school committee's vote to create such a position and take subcommittee minutes and in

117several instances that has been um there have been various votes about whether or not that is in effect in subcommittee so I just want to put it post point out that these are my voted um goals by the full school committee and so I will continue to advocate for that role because it's consistent with the vote of the committee um if there are specific questions on any updates I'm happy to provide them I see member Karen first well I I really do support getting out the information about all the wonderful programs at all of our schools specifically it seems to be a really uh public interest in what's happening at our Middle School would it be a good idea to maybe have student representatives from there yes in fact the Middle School principal had just

118had this conversation with me and we would absolutely love to hear their voice we're thinking perhaps next month principal kin yes I'm seeing a yes I mean they may not have quite the availability with the younger not able to drive themselves places um so may even be like a CSL comes and talks to us this month or you know might have to think out of the box on that one but I would love to have that happen thank you thank you thanks member Karen any other questions or comments for the superintendent um I appreciate the update on all of this and you know when I sat down to to review and give this some uh consideration I it was really it was it was actually really nice it was really nice to sit down and

119see the goals and the key actions listed out because I could say yeah that's been done that's in progress this is what we're doing and there's a lot here and I know that there's a lot more going on and sometimes one sentence say you know related to the turnaround work doesn't really reflect back the volume of work that's involved there the energy that goes into that so um I really appreci apprciate that um everything is listed out really clearly I also agree with member Karen support the idea of you know pulling in highlighting some of the great things that we offer I've heard some individual members of the public request or sort of question um attention that gets paid to the four corner school um and I think that it's coming out of interest in

120highlighting also what's happening at the other two Elementary SCH schools um so I think that there is a lot that we can do to help and support that one question that I do have is where are we with recruitment of a curriculum director I know that this position has been open for a long time um can you give us a brief update or input on that yes uh we certainly do not have that position filled we do have an interview scheduled again for another round Monday day perhaps it's upcoming in I would say Monday or Tuesday next week I don't remember the date uh there's a representative panel of teachers administrators serving on that panel um we have in the past had a challenging time following F finding qualified applicants um and by qualified I

121mean not just credentialed but experienced in uh public education K to 12 we're really looking for somebody who or prek to 12 actually because they they need to be familiar and confident leading the work of aligning uh if a child enters Greenfield Public Schools today what is the robust Vision that will carry them through to high school from their preschool career to graduation into their career or college or Beyond and that comprehensive understanding of what does it take to help them be fulfilled in their academic experience in every single year is important so for example we're we're not looking for somebody who might have had experience at the secondary level but is not familiar um with work at our youngest uh grades um and so we we are looking for somebody who has a a

122depth of knowledge um State Standards which are uh rapidly changing and are rigorous here in Massachusetts specific to our state and willing to lead that work so if you are at home and you're thinking gosh that is me I love kids I'm great at my job and I know everything you just said please apply thank you um any additional comments or questions yes member ex um I know that I've mentioned this before but and is not included in the superintendent's performance goals and I am I bring this up because I know there's a lot of work that is going into um the river is it Green River yes the Green River School and and the superintendent is involved with that and I have I've wanted to see it on here because I know it's taking

123a lot of work and and um she had mentioned well you know I don't need credit for that I'm not asking I'm not I wouldn't reduce it to you're needing credit it's just a lot of work that's involved in doing that whether it's open or not open so um I just want to say again that I'm I'm I would have been a okay with seeing it on your form that's all yes mayor Martin thank you I have a couple questions just obs a and I'd like some response not tonight certainly um there's been some conversation about equality and diversity so the parity equality has to do with the funds uh dispersed to the different sites and the diversity has to do with the um the diversity ratios in in each of the school sites this

124has been brought forward uh to me and a number of occasions and both in writing and in conversation at subcommittee meetings um I also have um historically we've always looked at the neighborhood schools as a neighborhood school and we've had some conversations about this in the past uh month or so regarding um how do you move from one District to another District how do you move um there's been a conversation with some principles as to um how do you how do we share the student age children in town uh to the neighborhood schools so any type of um formal policy or informal policy or um you know if I wanted to move my children from one from my neighborhood to another school how does that all happen and then lastly um I'm concerned about the

125uh increase in Choice out and the funds as indicated by the business manager and the superintendent's budget is is pretty heavy it's at uh $2.8 million out and our choice in money is actually decreasing we had some higher choice in money two years ago and the trend is now decreasing how can the school committee help you bring in um bring in some students at the risk of harming other districts but to uh bring in some students to offset the uh the harm that's done to us the monetary harm that's done to us and the choice out thank you so just quickly I think the superintendent you want to respond it seems like um so all of those things are interesting topics and some of them do relate back of course to the superintendent's performance in

126general um and some of them could be sort of focused on some of the goals and key actions that are listed here one of the things that I immediately think of is what we've just heard a request for is additional support for highlighting the unique programs that we have um and the unique opportunities that we have here in the Greenfield Public Schools but I just want to caution us because I feel like you know when we start to talk about Choice and then we move into budget deliberation um we're moving a bit off topic here um so with that said superintendent has a response you have the floor superintendent um right so just to address a few of those things um two things one is that I forgot to mention earlier I do in addition

127tonight's verbal up provide a monthly report and I do break down every single month what activities are happening and I relate them to these goals so in addition to what's being presented tonight and so the the public knows the committee is apprised each month um of individual actions that are taken towards this um the mayor asked two raised two points I'll start with the school choice um the first the first way that the committee can help is that um school choice in is capped by this committee and the number of seats um is um limited by how many seats we uh post into the newspaper and local media and report to the Department of Education and how many uh seats this committee votes um so when you open up that fourth grade section at Four

128Corners um which lets us uh accept school choice seats in that helps this goal it helps us attract folks who want to be here in Greenfield and it helps our Greenfield residents uh keep Greenfield Public Schools their first choice their best choice and to keep their children right here um but it's also true at our other schools um so that's the first thing is that um while the committee talks about how many students choice in are out there's no cap on whether students Choice out and there is a cap um so by necessity uh the committee can work on one end of that equation the second thing is that um we'd have to look at the numbers I don't have them in front of me tonight but we have talked about this on a number

129of occasions and I I'm I'm not sure that it's accurate to say that choice out is increasing what's increasing is the dollar value that the state assigns to the number to the um per pupil cost of students that are choicing out so the dollar value the impact has absolutely increased um but we will see that that number increases if the per pupil cost increases also so in terms of a trend and number of pupils um we have seen um families choosing to increase choice in for example at the high school level with the opening of the new facility they have taken uh advantage of new seats at the Greenfield High School and we've continued to exceed our demand for choice in seats every single year so we generally fill 100% of our choice in seats

130here in Greenfield annually Madam chair yes M Martin um the state law requires uh that the school committee vote in May of each year to set the number of seats available uh for choice in and the seats available are presented by the superintendent to us uh recommendation of empty seats by reported to her by the principls so uh we can be as open door as we would like but we are only getting information on empty seats that exist so creating classrooms is not what we're we've often decided not to be involved in because of the cost but we want all of our seats that that are already accounted for to um to be optioned or offered for people uh parents to choice in their students on the other side with the um per pupil cost

131am I to understand that um the choice out costs are higher than the choice in cost so um even though it's more money it's uh if all the student cost per student is the same then then we're still losing the same amount of money and we are falling in a deficit and if per pupil cost how is that arrived at is that by uh increasing our budget to increase the cost so when student Choice out we increase the choice out money so those are some other questions I'd like to have you detailed answer I'm not sure so I think that we will have a more in-depth conversation on Choice um I also do want to clarify my understanding is that choice in Choice out it's $5,000 it's capped at $5,000 however that's not the casee

132with Charter School so um am I incorrect it has the the choice value changed and I'm not aware of that it's generally 5,000 but sometimes if you takal sure sure sure thank you so just to reate reiterate um what Steve said for the record since he's not on the mic he said that um it's capped at 5,000 unless there's special education trial that may require additional services so I do want to I want to press pause on the choice conversation it's clear that the committee is interested in further discussion on school choice and we will have that opportunity in the next month or two um as indicated by the mayor we do vote on this and we will hear recommendations from the superintendent uh as to the number of choice seats that we would like

133to um allow for um so I I see the superintend hand then I see U member Hollands you did you have uh more sure the second point of that was the mayor asked how can the committee help and then um referenced earlier votes that this committee has taken where um the um decision was made not to extend additional Choice seats by virtue of adding a a teacher that can be reversed for example uh at the budget vote last week there was a vote to add a teacher out of the choice school choice account um and then to allow Greenfield students to take a seat first um but that does expand then additional school choice seats to somebody coming in um that same scenario as we went through the math a week ago it can be

134um net positive to the district even though you have an additional cost what it allows for is Greenfield enrollment to expand first and foremost and our enrollment is stable and expanding and we've seen that Trend consistently over a number of years whereas our neighboring districts are experiencing declining enrollment where we're seeing steady and increasing and enrollment here in Greenfield and that's a good sign it's a sign of the health of our district the health of our population and we want to see that continue um so in certain areas it may make sense to reconsider that decision of the committee um when we're talking about opportunities for Choice and then just really quickly I don't think it relates to my goals actually but the district um consideration about uh in District or neighborhood schools is an

135easier way to say that um is a worthwhile um discussion but I think it's a much lengthier discussion and I think it it could well be um part of next year's goals for example to look at the districts that go to Newton school or Federal Street school or four corner school um certainly it relates to how Green River School is used if you were to open that up as a you know different type of building you might want to reexamine some of those lines and to talk with it about the associated costs of um if you are allowed to ride a school bus or if you have to transport yourself and all of those different um but I think it warrants study communication with families conversation and and a lengthy public conversation so I don't

136think that's anything for tonight thank you superintendent um member Holland I'd like to I look forward to this uh interesting and high priority subject in the future I just like to make two clarifications what I think are clarifications the choice S cost is uh 5,000 plus 100% of the special education costs and I think last year uh the superintendent's office provided information that sometimes that is what's driving up costs and secondly we are required to provide our best estimate of seats available in May but there's so much that happens between them and I'm pretty sure when we voted that we made a special provision to be flexible so I believe at any any time someone could return the superintendent could return and say can I bring in five more I don't think we're locked into

137our estimate thank you member Holland are there any other I I have one further comment which is to um in the spirit of what the mayor just suggested we've talked on this committee it would be very um this is a pivotal time for our region and I do think that there's extraordinary Merit in exploring the idea of more robust Partnerships with neighboring districts what's in my goals is to consider some cost sharings we've explored that um for an example of that is the collective bus bid that we've been talking about um but I think we have an opportunity to exceed that and to have some more significant conversations but it is such a um time consuming kind of initiative and it is different than focusing on the Greenfield Public Schools um to talk about whether

138to partner with with other neighboring districts that if there's interest in that on this committee then I i' would be happy to explore that but we would need this committee to signal that with the vote and to recognize the priority and time commitment it would take and to have a possible conversation about prioritization of um tabling something else to to focus on that right now in our region there is that conversation Greenfield is the county seat there is a conversation we could be exploring about and the mayor has suggested some spefic specific ways and we've always followed up in each of those instances um but that's different than a uh robust conversation between school committees for example and the Greenfield school committee hasn't to my knowledge been part of that dialogue and I want to

139make sure we're not missing an opportunity thank you superintendent um any further questions or comments on the superintendent's goals midcycle review okay so we will move on to the next item however I'd like to take a very very brief bathroom break um so yeah can we take a quick recess about 3 minutes and come right back does that work for you all great thank great hi everyone we are back um we lost much of our audience but that's okay um Ian's still here thank you Ian from gctv you are you know a reliable audience member thank you so much okay so we're back um thank you committee members I uh really needed a bathroom break we have one more item on our uh main agenda I'm sorry oh actually yeah one more item on our

140main agenda this is the um committee and superintendent respon respon to public input um this was uh brought forward because there was an interest in some conversation about how we as a committee respond to public input generally public comment um but we do receive public input in a lot of different forms so I expanded this to include also the superintendent response and just generally public input because we receive as I as I noted public input generally from email um sometimes in other ways so in your packet what I did was I included um I believe all of the policies or at least the majority of the policies that relate to sort of the committee and the district relationship with the public um and in here you'll see uh the policy that I read earlier which

141is public participation at school committee meetings that's our um public comment policy um you'll also see uh special procedures for conducting hearings we went through that before at the budget um fy20 budget hearing as well uh there are some other relevant policies in here including um complaints policies so you know occasionally we do receive complaints um and there are the process say for that so this is all here for the committee I also included a very brief email that I had with um Liz lefon from the masc and this I believe was actually far before the vote um I'm not sure what prompted me to do this if there was just an interest um it might have been right around the boat but I was asking for some clarification oh was an email to the

142committee okay no that was February this is February 1st okay that was February 8th so um anyway uh you'll see in her response um a little information about her recommendation in terms of like how to respond and who should be responding um what I found to be kind of really helpful here is just well I mean we can read it um I also had a brief phone call with Liz as a follow-up um more recently just I think last Friday [Music] um and I asked her specifically about you know kind of anything to take into consideration if we wanted to respond immediately to public comment in a meeting and her response was that the reason why we don't respond is actually because things come up things can come up that may not be on the

143agenda and this actually totally points back to the public comment policy in some ways um so she said that you know if if somebody comes and they start talking about you know something that may not be on the agenda or is unexpected um and we respond to it it opens up the doors for us to be deliberating on items that we haven't posted clearly on our agenda so it opens up the doors for some potential open meeting law violations and she said you know that's that's like one really main reason why it's not recommended to deliberate or have any kind of response back to U members of the public in the in the actual public comment period um and then of course it does that does kind of reflect like I just said back to

144the public comment policy which essentially is saying you know know we want public comment on items that are on our agenda and I think that that does if we adhere to that it actually does allow us within the context of our already um scheduled deliberation to potentially comment on some of the items that the public may be commenting on so um I am not aware of any necessary vote with this this is here kind kind of informationally and for an opportunity to speak I see your hand member Hollands um so I do want to open the floor for some comments of course if there's a motion you can put it Forward um I think I've scheduled about 20 minutes for this um trying to get us out of here by 9:30 at the latest so

145let's just kind of keep our comments concise and we'll see where we go member Hollands what do you have uh this is an issue that I raised and I never had the idea that we would start talking to people when they come to us in public comment my my concern is that we first and I was never talking about the public generally communicating to the superintendent my concern was specifically people who communicate to the school committee they write to the school committee or they speak to us in public comment and my concern is that we're consistent and fair what the reason I brought it up is one person might send an email to the full school committee and that person gets a response and another person might send an email to the school committee and

146that person doesn't get a response or one person might speak to the school committee and I think we should be consistent and fair and I also think we should be clear who is responding I personally would have no problem if the school committee voted that when someone writes to the school committee that we want the superintendent to respond but if we haven't said that if the communication comes to the school committee I think the school committee should decide F I just think it should be fair and consistent um and I don't see that it is not by Choice it's just the way it seems to happen but it was never my concern that we start talking to people during public comment I don't I wouldn't agree with that okay thank you member Holland so it's

147my understanding that the chairperson is the spokesperson for the committee and the superintendent is a spokesperson for the district this is clearly outlined in the um at least the policy that relates to Media communication um and in the email from Liz she does State let me find it um well at the beginning she suggests if if an email is specifically public comment the email should be printed and brought to the next school committee meeting as public comment so that all school committee members see the public comment slail um and a response would be thank you for your email the school committee will receive a copy of your public comment at the next regular l l scheduled meeting she goes on to say in general the superintendent could reply to an email to clarify any question

148brought forward emails to school committee members that require a response to a school district matter should be forwarded to the superintendent for response the school Committee Member could certainly forward to the superintendent with the CC to the center so the constituent understands that the superintendent will reply so I think that we do actually um this kind of points a little bit to to complaints complaints is like a larger in our complaint policy it very clearly articulates that we want to tackle any complaints at the lowest level possible and that any any kind of complaints that we receive as individual committee members or as a full committee should be directed to the superintendent and the superintendent can direct them to whoever she needs to direct them to and then there's a process for response to that

149and then I hear um member Hollands in you know sort of pointing out some inconsistency with response to emails but I do also want to say that um I've tried really hard during my chairpersonship to at least at a minimum respond to a to at least let the individual know that we received their email um with past chair people I think that at least in terms of a full committee response where every one knew that the comment was responded to that wasn't always the case and and I remember back when um Tim farell was the chair it was a question that I had too which is like you know what you know why don't you respond what do we do like you know what's the protocol here [Music] um I also just want to say

150that I I really appreciate I mean the superintendent is our chief executive and I 100% support the super had responding to anything related to like District matters as Liz suggests in the email I saw your hand or some movement did you want to say something when you're done okay I'm good for now okay I see the superintendent and then I see member exm so um I just I I struggle with our limiting um public comment strictly to what is on the agenda agenda and I will share why um prior to my being on the school committee I would show up at committee meetings regardless of what the agenda was if there was something that was going really that I felt like wasn't wasn't um being addressed at a district level not at the individual School

151level and Bill at one point was a chair and Tim was the chair prior to that and they were both gracious enough to allow me to talk about special education and and um My Hope for it to get more attention and things like that and I don't know that those necessarily were on the agenda but I was very thankful to have been allowed to speak and I think that there there and this is just my own opinion and I fully understand the policy it absolutely makes sense but I think that that there are times that you know you can't put off for something you can't put some topic off for two months when it's timely and happening at that moment I I guess is my point so um I just wanted to mention that superintendent

152I think this is an important um topic and how the public interacts with the committee is important to many people um certainly Folks at home that are watching and there are a lot of people that watch even if they don't come in person follow what the committee is doing and what is done here matters and their voices need to be heard and they need to know how the committee responds having said that the chair brought forward tonight all of our policies on that and right now we are going through a policy review process these policies are in subcommittee right now with the guidance of the mass Association of school committees for the exact purpose of having this discussion so I agree um that there needs to be a consistent response but actually um you know

153one of the things that has been consistent is as superintendent I nearly always respond and say to the emails uh addressed to the school Comm and say thanks for for contacting us and provide clarification if necessary um and recently there was a question about whether or not I was allowed to do that I think rather than hashing it out now uh the subcommittee is the perfect venue to decide if the policies should be recommended to change or if they should continue as they are um and member extrs comment is a good example of something that might be debated in subcommittee to to allow exceptions or not um I'm concerned that you know taking this out of sync with our process for uh changing how things are done um is unfair to the the process of

154policy review underway and is really significant to how the public uh goes about interacting with this committee so deserves the same process of um policy revision and review as everything else thank you superintendent um I saw mayor Martin and then member holls thank you I'm I'm inclined to agree with member extrom that the um the limiting the public comment to only agenda items is a Prohibition and a restriction of public comment so I'm not in in favor of that and I say that only because in the recent days I've been reading about the ACLU cases against School committees across Massachusetts as as they relate to um restricting public comment so uh there's already been one case as I mentioned earlier in NC school committee was um lost their case um it may or may not

155go to further litigation uh a number of other school committees in the State uh and over for one are reconsidering the policies because they're all taken from the mass Association of school committees so even though you quote Liz from the mass Association of school committees I'm wondering if uh maybe that is not part of the problem and that we times have changed and I know our policies go back to 2006 and so on and we need to have them reviewed but the policies that the state is using uh masc maybe they have to be reviewed under the current situation for um public comment um I want to say that I get as a school committee person um or rather as mayor I get I get emails phone calls and and comments directly to me on

156school committee matters so I I can't see that I'm going to be restricted in any way and commenting uh on anything that I know about you know it's been 10 years the door has been open my office people come in and out of there all the time I get phone calls emails on the street any question anytime has been my Mantra um so and I couldn't change that at this point I do the best I can to answer the question if I don't I may say well call the superintendent uh or check with the committee chair but it's it's hard to um restrict Free Speech member Hollin my my goal in bringing this up is that we are fair and consistent to we treat everyone the same so I I agree with almost all the

157guidelines you read that someone else gave to you I don't agree we should put this off just as a matter of policy so I I would like to make a motion that would clarify the three things you've said and what the superintendent has said that that we respond fairly and consistently to public comment to the school committee two that the chairperson is a spokesperson for the school committee according to our policy and will answer for the school committee as a whole and three the chairperson will refer matters having to do with District matters or subcommittee matters to the superintendent or the chair or or whatever we refer matters and notify the person who's communicated of that you know thank you for your response I've sent it to the superintendent to answer thank you for your

158response I've sent it to the chair of the SA committee who's working on that to give you the status or something but what I object to is that Joe Smith who's who knows somebody writes and gets a wonderful letter of response and Joe Clark who doesn't know anyone and maybe that's not the reason doesn't hear anything I just want us to be the same to everybody I'm not talking about communication I'm not talking about complaints or maybe that's part of it I'm not talking about Communications in general to the superintendent and I'm just strictly talking about someone is approaching the school committee at its meeting or writing to the school committee that's all but I think those three guidelines capture everything you say and I appreciate that you do right and I appreciate that is

159our policy but if it's going to be referred to someone I I appreciate the thought that you should say thank you I referred that so people get a response from us I cannot Su at that motion what was that a motion wasn't really it's not okay so okay so first I heard it was a motion then I heard it was not really AEM motion i' like to make a motion with these three points but and then I heard Bill say yeah no and then um I just want to say so again you know a little bit in my defense I feel that I have actually done this pretty well in my chairpersonship um and I do try to just say thank you and sometimes all it is is thank you we received it and that

160may not I can't I'm not sure what that feels like on the receiving end it may not feel like what they want it to feel like I'm not sure and but the reality is is that I do think that that is a fair and sort of level equal way to respond to people um and I have also witnessed the superintendent step in when I feel it's appropriate for her to step in if there's a an elaborate question about our district then she she fills in the details um and then you know related to complaints we have the complaint policy and we follow the complaint policy um so I guess I feel like we are doing a pretty darn good job of what is being suggested that we do um and I'm happy to continue forward

161with that and then just to mention or just to comment quickly on what the mayor brought up we're all individual elected officials and I think that we all get a lot of input from different parts of our community um and I don't think that anything is any of our policies are necessarily suggesting that we shouldn't you know interact with our constituents and you know do the best we can to provide the information they need to we they are asking about and also refer to the superintendent as needed um so I guess would just say you know mayor I support you in doing that um I feel like it's part of our job I saw somebody over here no no okay did you want to say something okay I just going to say that given the

162the um comment that the mayor raised regarding the ACLU uh that it may be appropriate to get some legal input on these policies um and that will forward the discussion whether it's going to policy for further review or whatever the next step would be obviously it should be compliant with the law in respect um individuals rights to free speech within the um uh policy of the school committee thank you superintendent um I would actually I I'll put forward a motion um I move to have the policy subcommittee take a more in-depth look at the public comment policy and potential response we are actually reviewing policy section be I think we're halfway through it right now so it would be really easy to add it onto the agenda and just kind of spend a little bit

163more time with it and see if there's anything else that comes up at the subcommittee level um as an extension of my motion also request legal input to support that conversation so two items um to refer uh in-depth conversation on uh public comment and response to public comment to the policy subcommittee um paired with receiving legal input um from whichever attorney we prefer uh I'll leave it at legal input okay so that's my motion two items second by member Karen any deliberation on that okay all those in favor of the motion I I I okay that is unanimous um yes member Hollands could I ask that we go back and just check that we were evenhanded in responding to people well for example the woman who spoke to us about her concern about Newton's school

164who came and spoke with her child did we anyone respond to her did I you mean in the vocal like in the I don't think we should talk during the meeting but someone comes and says blah blah blah blah blah blah blah do do we okay so um about an issue do we respond back and say thank you or refer referring that to the committee or thank you we appreciate you speaking or I think that this needs to be part of the subcommittee conversation and I can make a note um of specifically responding to in meeting public comment I just want us to treat everyone the same that's my goal so um in general no please in general though I do believe that I thank individuals for coming and speaking in public comment and my

165simple recollection right now without reviewing every video which I am not going to do is that in general I give a general thank you um and the superintendent doesn't always respond to questions that are out there um and I think that again this is part of the balance of you know what what's on our agenda what's appropriate in the response what you know what kind of deliberation we necessarily need to have I think that we need to take this a subcommittee and we can come back with a recommendation on any potential changes and you know again like it all it's all interwoven together all of this um and I don't I'm not aware of anytime that I have like say followed up via email maybe once in my lifetime you know so did I see

166a hand over here did I make that up okay um what was that member Holland I just wanted to thank you for putting this on the agenda yeah absolutely it was um voted by the committee so here it is okay so we did just vote to send it to policy subcommittee and get some legal input and we will do that and it'll Circle back [Music] um I'm sensing no further deliberation on this okay um any new business items I don't have any any new agenda item suggestions want to go into executive session thank you that was a motion to enter into executive session by mayor Martin um we would be entering into executive session for the purpose to discuss strategy with respect to collective bargaining or litigation if an open meeting may have a detrimental

167effect on the bargaining or litigation position of the public body and the chair so declares this is in regards to Unit C um is there a second please second second by member Karen um can we have a roll call excuse me there's a there's a motion on the table I know but are we allowed to comment because you you asked before if there were any new agenda items and then you just moved right on without allowing well mayor the mayor made a motion okay um we have a motion on the table can we have a roll call please member Holland no because I think we should talk about new agenda items Martin mayor Martin I'm going to say no and for the benefit of having the member Hollands provide topics for next agendas member Karen

168I'll say no so she can yes reom I'll say no as well actually okay it's the only opportunity we have to mention agenda items and I had written several out for consideration one is to review the the two secretary and minute votes we took July 2018 to clarify any questions of subcommittees two to bring up the discussion of school committee goals and three to um put on the agenda referring the outdoor basketball Services services at the three elementary schools to refer to health facilities subcommittee thank you okay so just quickly the second one that you mentioned we've already voted on so that will be coming up at an upcoming agenda at some point um and then what is the [Music] first we took two votes about secretaries and minutes in July July and I don't

169think it's working well for the school committee and I would like that to come up for a discussion it's been a lot of discussion about I went back and looked at our vote it was to have someone present at meetings to have minutes come out as soon as their uh draft minutes are available to post them I just like us to go back and talk about it because we didn't vote that we would insist that someone provide minutes on a tape we didn't vote that the draft minutes wouldn't come forward until you know a month later and I'm just like it to come up for rediscussed so what I'm hearing you say is essentially a request to have secretary xtram review the minutes to revisit our votes in July and report back to the committee

170on committee votes related to hiring a school committee secretary I think that it isn't working is that accurate we made two votes no can you just is just make it a motion to revisit our votes of okay July about secretary okay so you're moving to revisit the votes about school committee secretary to take subcommittee minutes or whatever subcommittee okay okay so you're interested in adding that to an agenda okay is there a second to add that to upcoming agenda the first that was the first one the second one was I know to have school Comm I just want to say also to that I've gotten you know I brought at the last meeting I brought this in a very Democratic way to the committee because I receive a lot of different inputs all the time

171for things like this sometimes it's sometimes it's you know small stuff sometimes it's big stuff um requests for more subcommittees requests for all kinds of requests to come to the agenda when we talked about this at the meeting you know so for me to bring it to the committee is in part just me trying to be as Democratic as possible and to serve the committee to serve the group but that doesn't I still have the authority of creating you know determining when these come up and creating in collaboration with the superintendent the agenda and I heard support at that meeting for me doing that and utilizing my own skills to prioritize what's going on with the committee and I just want to caution us I just want to caution us with with our request because

172they do take time and you know I just want to put that out there so there's a motion on the table does the committee want to review the votes that have been taken related to hiring a school committee secretary to support the work of subcommittees of of the school committee is there a second for that okay so there's no second for that so that motion fails the what was your third request member Hollands have having to do with the outdoor basketball surfaces at the elementary schools referring that to the um health safety and Facilities subcommittee to review it I think that's already is that in the capital budget well no it's not is in the cap can you yeah go ahead clarify it is in the capital budget but uh that request is also being

173um was before the Conservation Commission Tuesday night apparently uh somebody is making a proposal to get a permit to pave pave the basketball court so I don't know if the superintendent's office is involved or not superintendent so this has come to the committee in a couple of different ways um in the capital process there was a request for paving at Newton School in a public comment a parent spoke to the PTO having private funds to fund the basketball court and through the capital process I represented to the capital um CIP committee and then on to the mayor from that um office that the uh school committee endorsed the paving project and that the PTO and some Grant funds they wanted to do the paving of the basketball school at basketball court at Newton School at

174the same time because um it's our understanding that the cost for the whole project even if the PTO picks up the basketball court portion that the cost for the whole project will be less if they're done at the same time with appropriate permitting so that was the intent of that moving forward um the other two uh School schools were not addressed for their basketball courts is my recollection in the capital but that that vote has now passed so if it went to health and safety any change to that would be for an upcoming Capital uh cycle okay so there's a motion on the table was is there a second at all or there was a motion put forward is there a second for the motion I don't I don't believe there was a motion that

175was a suggest question for new agenda items for the next meeting there were three items suggested by member Holland member Holland can you please rephrase your request as an as as a motion to refer the outdoor basketball issue to the health safety and Facilities committee is there a second okay no second um so the motion fails um thank you for the conversation mayor and uh superintendent and updating us um clarifying where that's at okay uh I moved into into executive session for the purpose of uh bargaining Unit C mgl c3a 213 you be coming back to vote we will not be coming back to vote uh there was a second by by you member exam thank you and a roll call please discussed I know it member holls yes member holls is a yes mayor

176Martin yes M Karen yes runz yes and myself we are in a you are yes okay great we are now in executive session it is Wednesday all of our Productions at gctv are sponsored in part by Bay State Health providing the care you and your family need when you need it close to home visit them online at baystatehealth.org Greenfield Savings Bank visit them at 400 Main Street in Greenfield call them at 774 3191 or go online to greenfieldsavings tocom Greenfield Community College providing access and excellence and higher education in the Pioneer Valley visit them at gcc.edu the Hammond family the Hammond family are longtime supporters of Greenfield community television new Fortune Chinese restaurant on the Mohawk Trail in Greenfield visit them online at new fortun ma.com call them at 772 838 and check them out

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